BSNL staff upset with pay scale & pending promotions

The employees of BSNL are also not happy with the miniscule pension received by family members of employees who lost their lives during COVID 19 pandemic

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All India Graduate Engineers & Officers Association (AIGEOA), the recognised union of Bharat Sanchar Nigam (BSNL) has written to the chief managing director (CMD) of BSNL about all the shortcomings in the HR operations at the public-sector undertaking (PSU).

Employees are not happy with how the PSU is taking care its employees and AIGEOA has actually alleged that the BSNL management has been ignoring and turning its back on all people / HR-related issues.

As per AIGEOA, the management committee has not fulfilled their own promise on the matter of standard pay scale (SPC) E2 and E3. The BSNL management had agreed to act on the SPC matter and mentioned this in a letter, says the union. It is said that about 13000 executives who have been recruited or promoted from 2009 to 2020 are impacted.

“About 13000 executives recruited/promoted by BSNL from 2009 to 2020 are suffering severe losses in their total emoluments due to non-approval of standard scale of E2-E3,” states the letter.

Another grouse that employees have according to AIGEOA is that senior managers are enjoying all the benefits of the 7th Pay Commission while junior employees are deprived of the same.

“It is important to note that on the one hand about 30K BSNL executives (whose last pay revision was on 01.01.2007) are struggling with pay issues and have been denied all legitimate dues in the name of financial crunch, and on the other hand, senior managers are enjoying all pay & perks of 7th Pay Revision w.e.f. 01.01.2016 in the same BSNL,” the letter further states.

The letter also says that families of BSNL employees who lost their lives during the pandemic are just receiving a monthly pension of Rs 2500 which is not sufficient at all.

Yet another issue the BSNL staff have is with the promotions of employees. According to AIGEOA, the promotion of AGM/CAO level has not been cleared by the BSNL management. Despite the verdict of the Supreme Court in the matter of reservation in promotion on 28 Jan and Department of Personnel and Training(DoPT) issuing instructions on 12 April, BSNL failed to issue promotion in assistant general manager/chief administrative officer (AGM/CAO) equivalent grades, even after passage of three months, whereas other departments including DoPT have issued bulk promotions.

Also, AIGEOA is not happy with the lateral recruitment of management trainees (MT) at BSNL. The union body has reacted sharply on the management proposal to issue a list of 300 people for MT. It is believed that the entry of MT will seal the minimum career progression of the Executives Recruited by the BSNL through All India Competition and Promoted at the level of JTO/JAO. They further say that abundance of qualified Engineers and Account Professionals are waiting for professional with more than requisite service length in preceding grade but instead of promoting them to next higher grade, management has moved to recruit MT as a lateral entry, which is not accepted by the Association. They are completely against the lateral recruitment of MT
Hence association demands immediate termination of MT Internal Process re-initiated on 08.07.2022 and altogether Scrapping of MT and DGM RRs and replacement with internal fast track promotional methodology as stated by CMD BSNL and approved by BSNL Board under Restructuring in Nov-2021.

Some key demands of AIGEOA from the BSNL management are:

1. Immediate intervention of the director- HR or CMD with Department of Telecommunication (DoT) for the approval of E2-E3 scale meant for the junior telecom officer/junior accounts officer (JTO/JAO) and subdivisional engineer/account officer (SDE/AO) equivalent grades. The revised presidential order for replacement of initial two scales of JTO/JAO/equivalent by E2 and SDE/AO/Equivalent by E3 should be ensured immediately by BSNL management

2. Settlement of Pay Loss issues of JTOs/JAOs.

3. Issuance of AGM promotions for all eligible executives by utilising complete strength of AGM and deputy general manager(DGM) grades in one go, and by further increase in the sanctioned strength of various grades and streams in view of takeover of complete O&M works of BBNL/MTNL by BSNL.

4. Issuance of promotion in the AO to CAO and other equivalent grades and regular promotions in the grade of DGMs.

5. Enhancement of pension for family members who died during COVID to 30 per cent. As of now, there is a shortage of 8.2 per cent .

6. Put a halt to lateral hiring of MTs at BSNL.

As per the letter, the BSNL employees will go on an indefinite strike on 25 July, 2022 if their demands are not met. On 15 July, the employees already started demonstrating their protest by quitting all WhatsApp groups and starting a non-cooperation movement wearing black badges.

8 COMMENTS

  1. Nice article explaining demand point wise. BSNL management should awake from deep sleep to stop blood sucking of employees who run organization.

  2. The article published is self explanatory for the management as well DoT for understanding the pain of the BSNL recruited officer who are lossing their pay, pension and promotion. Every officer who appointed in BSNL after 1/1/2007 in BSNL is facing a huge loss in their pay almost Rs 10000 per month. And for almost 13 years the total loss would be around more than 15 lakhs.

  3. BSNL must resolve pay, pensions and promotion issues. HR policy is the worst in BSNL. Management has breached its executives by going in its own way without caring for employees and company as well.
    One set of employee is getting 7th pay revision whereas another set of employees are deprived of their basic genuine rights. Even second PRC has not been implemented so far. Cadre has been degraded.
    No social security in BSNL.
    Even it doesn’t have its own management.
    Higher officials are not the employees of BSNL.
    No vision of top management.
    Failure to launch even 4G.

  4. Really heartening and pity situation of BSNL employees, and BSNL Management /DOT is treating its employees so badly.
    BSNL employees should be given their genuine dues.

  5. Very nicely explained ,all demands are genuine and legitimate …BSNL management and Govt of India should resolve it to avoid unrest in the organization

  6. BSNL Management not resolving long pending issues like pay, pensions and promotion issues. HR policy is the worst in BSNL.

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